When I left off with the Ropers before, they were a family of 3, with one on the way. The only one of the challenge objectives that had been met was for Skip to get an A+ report card.

Play began this time on the day that Skip was due to have his Teen transition. That afternoon, Woody came home with a promotion to High School Principal and enough bonus money to buy furniture for the nursery they'd added on.

Later, the family gathered around in the kitchen as Skip transitioned to Teenager and acquired some rather unfortunate cheeks.

Usually anymore I've taken to choosing their aspirations via some random fashion such as rolling a die or using a random generator program. For this challenge, however, it was recommended to give Skip the Knowledge Aspiration, so that's what I did.

He didn't immediately get a LTW, but I checked it later and was fairly pleased with what it gave him:

Later that night, Daphne went into labor. I chose "random babies" from the Triplets & Quads popup, and luckily got only one child, a girl that I named Stephanie.

ACR got ahold of Woody and Daphne the next day and Daphne became pregnant again. Woody had been working on his skills in the meantime, and he came home with another promotion that day as well.

They had already arranged for the headmaster to come to dinner that night to try to get Skip into private school to satisfy another of the challenge requirements, and thankfully the scenario went off without any complications, and Skip was accepted.

Daphne wasn't yet showing, but she had her first belly pop later on that evening. Stephanie's infancy passed quickly in the meantime, and before they knew it, it was time for her Toddler transition, and I got my first look at her personality.

They got right to work on teaching her toddler skills, and it didn't take long before she was potty trained and learned to walk.

While Daphne had been busy working with Stephanie, Woody had been working on his skills for another promotion, and within a day or two he got it.

He brought Samantha Ottomas home from work with him that day, which disproved what I'd read about sims that were still in the sim bin not showing up in the game. Actually, I've had her and others come home with my sims from work or school in the past as well. Since I wanted Woody to be able to keep in touch with her to keep the friendship going, I added on another shopping district sub-hood that will serve as a holding place for extra playable sims from the sim bin, and possibly townies that become playable from using them as placeholders at university or such. I have everyone there installed in a house with a phone and a computer so that they can be called and chatted with online, but I don't intend to play them. When I start playing the main hood in rounds, I may go in and age everyone up by the same number of days as passed in the main hood to keep them in sync, at least the ones that have formed relationships with sims in the main neighborhood. I will also consider those of them that aren't currently married as available for my sims to marry, in which case I will start to play them normally with whatever household they marry into.

Later that night, Daphne went into labor with her third child. Again, I chose random, and again it gave me just a single child, a boy that I named Stevan.

With only a day or so to go before her Child transition, Woody took some time out from his skilling to help with teaching Stephanie her toddler skills. Here he teaches her how to talk:

He hadn't been neglecting his own skills though, and it wasn't long before he got another promotion.

He brought another friend home with him that day (I don't remember her name offhand), and she was around for Stephanie and Stevan's birthdays that evening. She had been playing chess with Woody upstairs, and when she came down for the cakes, her arm had gotten stuck in the chess playing position. First Daphne helped Stephanie to blow out her candles and Stephanie grew up:

And then Skip brought baby Stevan to the cake and helped him transition into a Toddler.

I was afraid he might end up being a clone of Stephanie since I was pretty sure I had forgotten to "roll the dice" to prevent the firstborn effect before he was born, but luckily, he is not:

And so another round of toddler training and other skilling commenced. As soon as was possible, Daphne potty trained Stevan.

Then, after her first day of school, Woody helped Stephanie with her homework and she learned how to study.

The next day, Daphne sat down with Stevan and taught him how to talk.

At some point during the spring, as soon as the snow seemed to have stopped, I had Daphne start a garden out at the side of the house, and added an apple tree because Daphne had rolled the want for an orchard tree. While the plants often went neglected because everyone was so busy, Daphne still found time enough to work the garden and before long had earned her bronze badge.

The next day she taught Stevan how to walk.

While she was doing that, Stephanie came home with her first A+ report card and ran to tell her mother about it. Daphne was busy with Stevan, but she did cheer for Stephanie once she had finished.

It was about this time that invitations to some of the hobby secret lots started coming in for the Ropers. Woody had already received a membership to Games of Glory for his gaming enthusiasm, gained mainly while playing chess to work on his logic skills for promotions. Skip had also received a memberhip to Sue's (Secret) Kitchen for cuisine enthusiasm gained while working on his cooking skill for the challenge. The next membership he received was for Games of Glory, and then Daphne received a membership to Peerless Park for her nature enthusiasm from working the garden.

Sometime during all of this, Skip managed to get both his cooking and his charisma skills up to at least 5, thus satisfying two more challenge objectives. The bookcase that Woody had gotten as a career reward from Education with one of his promotions helped out a lot.

His next achievement was earning his bronze gardening badge while helping with the garden one day.

Soon it was time for Stevan to transition to Child. Woody had brought Samantha Ottomas home from work with him again that day, so she was there for the cake. Stevan grew up well.

The next day after his first day of school, Daphne taught him how to do his homework.

During Stevan's infancy and toddlerhood, ACR kept trying to get Daphne pregnant again, but the random rolls always failed. I'd held my breath every time it sent them into the bedroom together, then was relieved when she didn't get pregnant as the three children seemed like enough to me. Eventually though, Daphne and Woody both rolled the want to have another baby, and so I took pity on them and had them try for one. This time Daphne did get pregnant, and shortly after Stevan started school, she started to show. The weekend was coming up, and it seemed like a good time to try to get Stephanie and Stevan into private school with Skip, so I had Woody call and arrange for the headmaster to come over on Saturday. Unfortunately, things didn't go quite as well as they did when I got Skip in. The scenario played out alright, but in the end they came up 4 points short of success despite numerous attempts on Woody's part to schmooze for a few extra points, and they were turned down.

I'd kept Stevan and Stephanie busy all day playing chess together to work on their logic skills and to keep them out of the way while the others were cleaning house and such to prepare for the headmaster's visit. While they were at it, Stephanie maxed her logic skill, and both of them gained enough games enthusiasm that they received memberships to Games of Glory.

The next day, while waiting for another visit from the headmaster that never happened, Skip worked on his body skill in hopes of getting a scholarship for it, and gained enough fitness enthusiasm that he was given a membership to the Platinum Gym. Of course the guy waited until Skip had finished on the bike and was heading for the shower to show up and give him the card.

After cleaning the house, Daphne had gone out to work on the garden, which was very overgrown at this point again, and she earned her silver gardening badge.

Skip went out to help her after his workout and shower, and while he was out there he received both a membership to Peerless Park and his silver gardening badge.

I'm not sure what happened, as I'm pretty sure I'd had Woody call to invite the headmaster again on Sunday, but when 5pm rolled around, the headmaster never showed up. So, I tried again, having Woody make the phone call to invite him, and this time I made sure that I saw he'd accepted for the next evening, which was Monday. Meanwhile, since he was close to becoming an adult and would thus be going to college within a day or so, I had Skip apply for scholarships. He was already set for the two that he needed for the challenge, but he'd also gotten his skills up enough to earn a few more as well.

Sunday night, Daphne went into labor, and soon delivered her third son, and likely her last child, Samuel. Again, I'd forgotten to "roll the dice" to prevent firstborn syndrome (this was a different play session from when Stevan was born), so he might end up being a clone of either Stephanie or Stevan. I'll have to wait unitl he becomes a toddler to find out. It's possible Daphne could have another child still if ACR rolls don't go my way, but as she's only about 6 or 7 days from Elder now it's unlikely.

The next day, while Samuel slept, Daphne cleaned the house and then worked some more on her sewing. She'd been working on making curtains for the house for awhile, and during this session the work finally paid off and she got her silver badge.

That afternoon, Woody came home with another promotion just about the time the headmaster was due to arrive.

I should note here that scheduling the visit for that day had been rather poor planning on my part, as Skip and Stephanie were both due to have age transitions that day. Skip would have become an adult, which meant I had to get him sent to college before he could transition, and Stephanie was due to become a teenager. But the visit was already scheduled, so in order to prevent them aging in the middle of it, and especially to keep Skip from aging to adult before I could get him to college, I set their age days back a few days. Neither of them got any extra benefits from this, and in the end I was able to work it so that the transitions happened pretty much on schedule. But more on that in a moment.

The headmaster arrived at the same time that Woody was getting home from work, so I had him greet him out front and then give the tour. Though I didn't have him try to schmooze, somehow he managed to earn them a few schmooze points just during the greeting. Then the tour began, and went well, though they lost a couple points for the kitchen as I'd neglected to clean up a baby bottle from where Skip had fed Samuel earlier that afternoon. And for some reason, the headmaster never sat down at the table with them after I had Woody call him in to dinner when the tour had finished, but they still got the meal points. Overall, this time they were successful and Stephanie and Stevan were both accepted.

After the headmaster had left, I got a cake and sent Stephanie over to it. As all the birthdays had been, it was just a small gathering in the kitchen instead of a party, but she still grew up well.

I rolled for her aspiration since she isn't part of Skip's challenge and had no aspiration requirements.

Pleasure seems to come up a lot for me lately, so I wasn't really happy to get that one, but it could be worse I suppose. I forgot to check if she had been given a lifetime want before I left the lot.

And that is where I ended my play on this lot for now. I didn't have Skip call to go to college since I plan on sending him from the college neighborhood screen along with Brandon Pennington and Ann Chovie so I can have them all together on one lot. Skip hasn't met Brandon yet, though he has met his sister Bethany when she came home from school one day. Here's a shot of them tossing a football in the snow.

He has met Ann Chovie, as she came home from school with him on another day about the time that Daphne discovered that she was pregnant with Samuel. You can see her sitting on the couch in the picture above of Daphne teaching Stevan how to do his homework. He's built his relationship with her up to friend already, so at least he knows one of the people he'll be going to college with. When next I play this neighborhood, I'll be continuing Skip's challenge in college. But before I end this post, here's a look at how the family the way there were when I left them.